books in order

Dick Lochte Books In Order

Billy Blessing Books In Publication Order

  1. The Morning Show Murders (2009)
  2. The Midnight Show Murders (2010)
  3. The Talk Show Murders (2011)

Leo Bloodworth And Serendipity Dahlquist Books In Publication Order

  1. Sleeping Dog (1985)
  2. Laughing Dog (1988)
  3. Rappin’ Dog (2014)
  4. Diamond Dog (2014)
  5. Devil Dog (2017)
  6. Mad Dog (2017)

Nikki Hill Books In Publication Order

  1. The Trials of Nikki Hill (1999)
  2. L.A. Justice (2001)
  3. The Last Defense (2002)
  4. Lawless (2004)

Terry Manion Books In Publication Order

  1. Blue Bayou (1992)
  2. Neon Smile (1995)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Croaked! (2007)
  2. Blues in The Night (2012)
  3. The Body in the Back Seat (2021)

Collections In Publication Order

  1. Lucky Dog, And Other Tales Of Murder (2000)

World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories Books In Publication Order

  1. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1 (2000)
  2. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 2 (2000)
  3. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3 (2002)
  4. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 4 (2003)
  5. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 5 (2004)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3 (2002)
  2. Orange County Noir (2010)

Billy Blessing Book Covers

Leo Bloodworth And Serendipity Dahlquist Book Covers

Nikki Hill Book Covers

Terry Manion Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Dick Lochte Books Overview

The Morning Show Murders

Nobody can dish morning TV like Al Roker, who’s seen every side of a business that looks good on camera even when sharks are circling inside the gleaming glass Manhattan media headquarters. Treachery abounds in Roker s riotously thrilling debut novel at once an ingenious murder mystery and a delicious behind the scenes look at network TV. As fact and fiction collide and the backbiting ignites, The Morning Show Murders will make you wonder: How much of this stuff is real?Network TV can be murder. Just ask Billy Blessing, famous for his smile, charm, and ability to survive the shark tank that is high stakes morning TV. But though Billy has outlived his fair share of prima donnas, his cooking segment on Wake Up America! is a staple of the American diet, and his Manhattan bistro is a mega success, his career has just taken a very dangerous turn: His show s perky cohost, Gin McCauley, has launched into some brass knuckles contract negotiations. A visiting Mossad agent is about to tell all on the air. And then the network s head honcho is murdered in his luxury apartment, and an ambitious D.A. decides that Billy is to blame. Forensics show that Gerry Gallagher was poisoned and that the fatal coq au vin came from Billy s restaurant. Gerry had an impressive list of women in his black book and a news assignment in Afghanistan had plunged the TV exec into the heart of a violent international secret. Now unsavory characters are coming out of the woodwork, and another murder strikes the show s inner circle. Billy knows that someone s trying to frame him. He also knows that a ruthless international assassin has just arrived in New York City. And suddenly, for the most trusted guy on TV the ultimate career move is not about ratings. It s about staying alive and stopping the next murder from becoming tomorrow s breaking news. From the Hardcover edition.

The Midnight Show Murders

Beloved TV personality, trusted weathercaster, and all around Renaissance man Al Roker continues his newest successful career with the thrilling sequel to his dynamite mystery debut, The Morning Show Murders. Professional chef turned amateur sleuth Billy Blessing once again finds himself in hot water, when a brutal killing cancels a TV show and its host during its debut. Billy has never liked going to the West Coast, but when he runs into high energy comic Desmond O Day, he reluctantly agrees to play second banana on the funnyman’s new late night talk show. Los Angeles holds bad and bloody memories for Billy. Twenty years ago, he had suspected obnoxious chef Roger Charbonnet of murdering his ex starlet girlfriend there, and told the cops. A tricked up alibi freed Roger, who vowed vengeance. And now Billy might be on the verge of getting burned. After a horrifying explosion during a TV taping kills more than Desmond O Day s chance at high ratings, Billy believes that he was the intended target and that Roger Charbonnet was somehow involved. And when politics, infidelity, and high finance are sprinkled in, the case turns out to have more ingredients than Billy could ever have imagined. Soon a beautiful female TV producer convinces Billy to find the culprit himself on camera. And the table s set for a conspiracy with too many cooks and far too many killers. Filled with the high style hilarity, insider info, and surefire suspense that are Al Roker s series trademark, The Midnight Show Murders is a four star feast for any fan of top flight mystery fiction. As James Patterson says, Maybe Al Roker should quit his day job!

The Talk Show Murders

After waking up the neighborhood with The Morning Show Murders, and keeping readers up late solving The Midnight Show Murders, Al Roker returns with his most tantalizing mystery to date. Celebrity chef turned sleuth Billy Blessing finds his plate full of danger once again, as secrets from his long buried past threaten to make a comeback. Before Billy had his five star restaurant in New York, before he was tapped to co host the morning show Wake Up, America! and travel with it for a week in the Windy City before he even assumed the name Billy Blessing he lived a totally different life under a very different identity: as wily con man Billy Blanchard. Caught trying to run a scam on a shady Detroit businessman, Billy did time for his crimes, reinvented himself, and has successfully kept that part of his past covered up ever since. But when he and Eddie Patton, a nosy ex cop with a long memory, are guests on a popular Chicago TV talk show, the off camera chat turns to blackmail. And Billy may have no choice but to pay up or see the embarrassing truth from being blogcast to the world on Patton’s true crime website. This being Chicago, secrets have a way of getting out and getting people killed. When Patton winds up dead in his apartment only hours after trying to shake Billy down, it s just the first in a string of killings that has America s most beloved TV host scrambling for clues, unsure who his friends are, and desperate to clear his name before he becomes the media s latest poster child for celebrity scandal. Throw in a budding romance with a visiting movie star and Billy Blessing may have finally gotten himself into one sticky situation even he can t talk his way out of. Fast paced, funny, and bubbling over with inside scoop on the business they call show, The Talk Show Murders is Al Roker mystery fiction at its delicious, dishy best.

Sleeping Dog

First Holmes and Watson, then Nero and Archie, Now Leo and Serendipity two detectives, two narrative voices, twice as much sleuthing and double the fun. First, imagine Katherine Hepburn at fourteen. Next, in your mind’s eye, replay Humphrey Bogart, at his middle aged best, as Sam Spade. Now picture this oddest of couples as the newest duo in detective fiction and you’ll have a perfect portrait of the memorable leads in Sleeping Dog.’ Los Angeles Times Book Review Originally published in 1985 by Arbor House 0 87795 738 X and by Warner in pbk. 0 446 32661 5, Sleeping Dog won the Nero Wolfe Award and was nominated for the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony Awards. In 1999, the Independent Mystery Booksellers’s Association named it one of their 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century. Poisoned Pen Press will republish the sequel, Laughing Dog, later this year.

Laughing Dog

A Los Angeles Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin return. ‘First, imagine Katherine Hepburn at fourteen. Next, in your mind’s eye, replay Humphrey Bogart, at his middle aged best, as Sam Spade. Now picture this oddest of couples as the newest duo in detective fiction and you’ll have a perfect portrait of the memorable leads in Sleeping Dog.’ Los Angeles Times Book Review Sleeping Dog 1 890208 51 5 $14. 95 was nominated for every major mystery award. Now Leo Bloodworth a middle aged grouchy P.I. and Serendipity Dahlquist the roller skating, precocious, wise acre teen hit the streets again. This time they’re looking for a runaway teenager and a pair of sapphire earrings which cases may, or may not be connected…
.’hilarious and yet sympathetic…
works beautifully and memorably.’ St. Louis Post Dispatch

The Trials of Nikki Hill

When TV presenter Maddie Gray’s body is found dumped in gangland LA, the police arrest a young black man found at the scene with Maddie’s ring in his pocket. For Nikki Hill, an ambitious Afro American attorney, it is a make or break case.

L.A. Justice

Mercer Early, a young litigator at the most prestigious African American law firm on the West Coast, has everything going for him. That is, until a labyrinthine murder case drops into his lap and threatens the pillars on which his many laurels rest. An incisive look at criminal justice and race relations, this novel will challenge your assumptions about guilt and innocence and keep you turning pages until the very end.

The Last Defense

Mercer Early, a young litigator at the most prestigious African American law firm on the West Coast, has everything going for him. That is, until a labyrinthine murder case drops into his lap and threatens the pillars on which his many laurels rest. An incisive look at criminal justice and race relations, this novel will challenge your assumptions about guilt and innocence and keep you turning pages until the very end.

Lawless

Mercer Early, a young lawyer at one of the West Coast’s most prestigious, predominantly African American law firms, has just been assigned to a case of an L.A. cop who has shot and killed his wife. The case seems routine enough that is, until two more previously non violent cops kill their spouses in cold blood. The three have some strange things in common, but the LAPD vehemently denies any connection. And when the FBI issues Mercer a warning to stay off this case, he finds himself on a wild ride that takes him from the indoor corridors of law and order to the Lawless streets of L.A.

Blue Bayou

‘Memorable…
Compelling.’LOS ANGELES TIMESP.I. Terry Manion is just out of rehab when he hears that his mentor in the gumshoe game, J.J. Legendre, has been been found with his brains blown out. Manion doesn’t believe it’s suicide, but finding the truth is a tricky business in the Big Easy, where those connected with J.J. are rapidly becoming an endangered species. With the help of his close friend, Nadia Wells an ex madam turned shamus Manion’s ready to kick some butt. But a Cajun killing machine named Croaker is challenging Manion to a showdown deep in the Southern swamps…
.

Neon Smile

When Terry Manion, the New Orleans private investigator introduced in Blue Bayou, agrees to work for Pierre Reynaldo, the king of exploitation TV, he doesn’t have a clue about what he’s getting into. Reynaldo wants to reopen a case the police slammed shut thirty years ago the racially motivated murder of Tyrone Pano, a black militant leader. But the more Manion learns about the case, the more personal it becomes. Both Manion’s father and his revered mentor, J.J. Legendre, had ties to Pano that might have been better left buried. The Neon Smile takes the reader back to 1965, a fateful year for J. J. Legendre. It is then that Legendre, a young and cynical homicide detective, tackles both the Pano case and a series of brutal murders committed by a killer as clever as he is cold blooded. Each victim is found with a voodoo doll, the signature previously employed by a nineteenth century murderer known as the Meddler. Legendre connects past and present to end the Meddler’s new reign of terror. But things are never what they seem in the Big Easy, and three decades later Manion must make a couple of connections his mentor missed between the Meddler killings and the Pano case, between the violent unrest of the sixties and today’s more subtle racial politics. The Chicago Tribune thought Blue Bayou possessed ‘the same kind of energy and imagination as prime Elmore Leonard and even vintage Richard Condon.’ This time that energy and imagination combine for a fast paced thriller that spans three decades of fear, corruption, and violence.

Blues in The Night

The thrilling new novel from a genre veteran When ex con Dave Mace Mason is hired by Paulie Lacotta, an old acquaintance and high rolling criminal, to watch his ex girlfriend, Angela, he knows there’s more to the job than he s being told. Angela has fallen in love with one of Paulie s competitors, Tiny, and Paulie wants to know if she s the reason a big deal recently went south. But Mace draws some unwelcome attention as he investigates, and when Tiny is found dead, Mace wonders if he will live long enough to uncover the truth. 20120109

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 2

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 4

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 5

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

Orange County Noir

Orange County, California, brings to mind the endless summer of sand and surf, McMansion housing tracts, a conservative stronghold, and tony shopping centers. It’s a place where pilates clas*ses are run like boot camps, real estate values are discussed at your weekly colonic, and ice cream parlors on Main Street, USA, exist side by side with pho shops and taquerias. Orange County Noir pulls back the veil to reveal what lurks behind the curtain. Features brand new stories by: Susan Straight, Robert S. Levinson, Rob Roberge, Nathan Walpow, Barbara DeMarco Barrett, Dan Duling, Mary Castillo, Lawrence Maddox, Dick Lochte, Robert Ward, Gary Phillips, Gordon McAlpine, Martin J. Smith, and Patricia McFall. Editor Gary Phillips is the author of many novels and short stories. He lives in Southern California.

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